Retiree Health Care

Many questions remain unanswered about the Transitional Reinsurance Program, the Washington-based benefits lobbying group noted in a letter sent this month to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which will enforce the program.

The Medicare segment of the debate included some of the most frequent interruptions by both Vice President Joe Biden and Republican vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) in a testy debate as each took turns bashing the other side's impacts on the program.

The field of long-term-care insurance providers is shrinking as companies exit the business or limit their sales. Of the 15 companies that generated the most statutory earned premiums for long term care insurance in 2010, five either no longer sell the product or have curbed sales.

As chairman of the House Budget Committee, Ryan drafted budgets for fiscal years 2012 and 2013 that include plans to overhaul the nation's federal healthcare entitlement programs through a premium-support model for Medicare and block grant payments to states for Medicaid.

As expected, the Republican Party promises massive changes to the Medicare and Medicaid programs if former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) are elected president and vice president.

The law ran afoul of protections against impairment of government contracts because teachers received three percent less in pay by paying into a fund than the amount the teachers and their employers agreed upon as part of teachers' contracts.